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Welcome to my blog! I love beading and this blog is an attempt to share a few of my beady tries and things, thoughts and thrills and inform you about what's new (patterns, jewelry, etc..) I got hooked by the wonderful art of beading in 2004 and never stopped since then. I live in Switzerland, in a small town between Geneva and Lausanne.

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Saturday, March 24, 2018

When I made my "Waves and Flames unfinished" bangle (the left, pink and grey one) based on a Rick Rack start, in the hope to find an easier method to make and teach "Embers" (read: without damaging fingers, needles or beads) I didn't expect what happened next.

I had to better understand the whys and hows, to better explain it to you. I made samples to show the difference between this & that start and the construction methods.. and this happened: a big pile of projects and ideas. I want to make a necklace that will take... forever. I need 10 other me.

But first of all, and related to this bundle of work primarely because it was inspired by the Embers cuff, I'd like to show you this "perpetual" Dimensional Cellini spiral which isn't PWAT, also not the indespiral. It is stiff 3D Peyote, and asymmetric. It is just a prototype. If I'd continue beading, it would become gigantic and, just like everything in the Universe, the ends would eventually, meet, but that would take many, many loops and I need my tendons for other exciting things. Read on!

'Perpetual' peyote ring

So here is what my muse and I have been up to the past months while playing with 3D Cellini peyote:

First I came up with little pods that are hollow and are totally perfect cord ends, but can also be excellent slides, as you can see here. I love how these pods look like fishtails when snuggled up :)

Cellini slides and pods

Cellini slides and pods

As some of you know, I love to add little metallic accents to my beadwork, but here I also could include Chirimen cord (and tassels and metallic drops). Chirimen cord is a Japanese Kimono fabric with cord on the inside. It is lovely, colorful material and I can't get enough of playing with it.

Then I made this special necklace, "Chirimania". I passed the Chirimen cord through a ring that makes the length adjustable. The pendant shows 2 "Open Hearts" which are built in the same manner, but folded differently.

Did I mention somewhere that I love to fold and zip peyote? ;) :D

"Chirimania"

"Open Hearts"

When making the bail, it reminded me a bit of the Hooded Grebe, which is a critically endangered bird species that has one of the most amazing courtship dances of its family. But once attached to the open heart, it reminded me of a quidditch ball with wings up high. Which inspired me to revamp an old pendant that I bought eons ago from the Metropolitan Museum of Art gift shop in Geneva.

I played happily with the Open Heart shape. I think that it is very beautiful (and you can see a photo-shopped Heart chain, which is the project I referred to above).

"Open Heart" - interchangeable thanks to magnets

"Open Heart" earrings

"Heart Chain" necklace project

Hogwarts pendant:
Quidditch bail, Open Heart pendant,
with a reproduction of an ancient rising
Pheonix pendant

I also tried to make a closed heart, but that didn't work so well... it became more and more difficult at each row, and so not something I'd teach. A bit like Embers, an impossible thing... but I love it.

Still decided to make a bangle, I started one in pink and gray, with more beads, and bling fire-polished beads, based on a waves start which doesn't shrink like a flames start, but there still is shrinkage and the bangle ended up becoming a beautiful, reversible scarf ring, which I love very much.

Intrigued by this astonishing shape, I made a second one using seed beads and delicas only, and to my surprise, ended up with an adorable little dice-shaped lantern. I love it even more

Cellini Dice earring

Still on my quest to make a bangle, I a beaded a Cellini tulip. It brought more insight about the number of beads I'd need to use in a start for a bangle, for which I thought that I was ready...

Cellini Tulip pendant

... but I made a mistake in my count. When not built on a disciplinary Rick Rack (and even if...), flames somewhat shrink (enormously) in the process and it ended up the size of a napkin ring. I didn't need napkin rings, so I made this beautiful ball, inside of which I put a musical bead - it's fun to play with! Now I feel the need to make a real "pomander", as I call this, with real essential oils - tell me in the comments what scents you love the most!

Musical Cellini Pomegranate

or Scented Cellini Pommander

Then 2 new inhabitants of my aviary, 2 beautiful Turquoise Parrots, "Neophema Pulcella", strongly inspired me and I finally made a bangle based on a waves start with their beautiful color.

My beautiful Turquoise parrots (and Fluff'dePuff' at the front)

So here is my "Parrot Wings" bangle. Although in the photo below it looks a bit impressive, it is a quite dainty bracelet, soft around the wrist.As you can see, the colors are not my ordinary colors.

Parrot Wings in Turquoise and Yellow

I think that the bangle looks like parrots in flight. See below a photo of another parrot in flight. When I see it, I feel happy that my birds can fly in our aviary.

Parrot in flight

I beaded another one to see what difference the bead count would make in size and the answer is: an enormous difference. I'll explain this in my tutorial. I added a small hook clasp to the second bracelet.

Parrot wings in Pink and Yellow

I matched colors with my new handbag

Of course I also made perfectly symmetric Parrot earrings. How could I not? I love these very much. They look awesome when worn.
I like to add something at the point of my shapes. It makes each piece different. First I added feathers to my parrot earrings (from the feathers lost by my birds during their moult), but they're very long, and so I prefer the shorter version with metallic feather charms.

Parrot earrings with feathers

Parrot earrings with metal charms

I didn't expect that I would wander such a path of exciting finds again. But voilà! I tried to make another sort of Embers cuff, based on a Rick Rack. The Rick Rack became something totally different and there still is no other sort of Embers, but now I know why it didn't work, and thanks to that, there are beautiful Cellini waves and flames, and I am more than happy with it all.

I also haven't finished exploring. It is so much fun to bead. I hope to soon finish a bangle based on the flames, and I have started to illustrate the instructions. I made a gazillion photos... but now am wondering how you would prefer this to be brought to you? Would you prefer:

a) a separate tutorial for each shape / project
b) 1 separate tutorial for the flames and 1 separate tutorial for the waves (4 to 5 projects with flames, 4 to 5 projects with waves)
c) 1 big tutorial - something that would actually nearly be a book, with about 10 projects, including the Waves and Flames Rick Rack.
d) all of the above and a Facebook group where we could happily share all new finds, right from the start and beyond.

About Me

I am Dutch and live in Switzerland since 1980.I am happily married and my favorite activity is off-loom beadweaving, bead embroidery and other techniques, to make jewelry and sometimes objects. Beading is a wonderful art.